iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jess Glanz

Bennett McKenna @bennettmckenna.bsky.social · 7h

Are you looking to be existentially terrified by a beautiful object this weekend? If so, I recommend @nghivo.bsky.social's The Scarlet Ball, which will show you a good time for a given value of good.

A copy of Nghi Vo's The Scarlet Ball being held upright in a Gilded Age cemetery. The dark cover shows a woman in a 19th century gown. Her face is not visible as there are claw marks across the image. A red pattern of swirling lines intrudes along the edges. A copy of Nghi Vo's The Scarlet Ball being held upright in a Gilded Age cemetery. The dark cover shows a woman in a 19th century gown. Her face is not visible as there are claw marks across the image. A red pattern of swirling lines intrudes along the edges.

The book is splayed open, showing the aubergine to scarlet ombre of the sprayed edges. The right hand page shows the text divider, a silhouette of a sewing needle, which is relevant to the plot.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Desperately want to wear these on a date and keep surreptitiously adding more over the course of the evening to see at what point the other person catches on. Yes, I’m single, why do you ask?

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I’ve just started this and I’m absolutely devouring it. It’s so good and creepy and vivid!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I haven’t been involved in this conversation, but just wanted to say I really appreciate you taking the time to listen and think about this—I’m really excited to see a Murderbot who better reflects both the demographics we see in the books and the real-world themes and history the story draws on.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

You are so good to your niece. If I started making this for one of my brother’s kids and it took me two years I’d be keeping it 🤣

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL and it’s fucking MOSS STITCH.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is fantastic news! Scientists found that parts of the brain are made of fundamentally different types of cells, which means they may now be able to grow hindbrain cells. And that opens up treatment research for conditions like ALS, which I have personal beef with for killing my friend Fawn.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A few other gems, various genres: - Everyone Knows Your Mother Is A Witch by Rivka Galchen - The Others of Edenwell by Verity Holloway - Lycanthropy And Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal - Compass Rose by Anna Burke - Dial A For Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto - The Lost Shtetl by Max Grossman

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

It’s SO good (though Siren Queen is my favourite of hers that I’ve read so far because I can’t resist an alt history with magic. That one should have been huge too.)

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I yell about Drunk On All Your Strange New Words by @eddierobson.bsky.social all the time and everyone I’ve recommended it to has loved it as much as I do. It’s such a great concept and so much fun. I have no idea why it didn’t make a bigger splash.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

She is so unbelievably ridiculously cute 🥰

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Oh noooooo she is ILLEGALLY cute. Her little face 🥺💕 Her tiny paw!!!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Thank you, Fat Bear Week, for making me remember that there are actual elections here this weekend. I was halfway to the polling station in a panic before figuring out they’re not till tomorrow, but it’s fitting that fat bears should be the ones to remind me to vote in Berlin.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I rarely listen to Joni Mitchell but it came on shuffle and within seconds I went “this is a tMG precursor somehow“. I don’t understand music enough to know WHY but maybe the specific guitar strum/beat and the way the vocals are sort of spoken but also way more technically complex than they sound?

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Also your story sounds so exciting!! I’d love to read it when it’s ready 😊

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Oooh that’s a good point—I’m sure there are bones you’d only need to sharpen one end of and then they’d have a helpful knob at the end so the yarn doesn’t slide off. This article has some good points about traditional societies and how labour-intensive yarn is: knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...

knowablemagazine.org

Rope, twine and thread: Invisible technologies of the Stone Age

Missing from the archaeological record, fiber innovations like string played a huge role in the daily lives of our ancestors. Researchers are working to weave together new insights from the traces the...

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I think if it were a widespread technology we’d have evidence of it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some clever Stone Age person had figured out nalbinding independently. It’s such a human impulse to try to turn the resources around us into something useful, and string and fabric are very useful.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I’m not a prehistorian, but I think the issue there isn’t the knitting but the yarn. We have Neanderthals yarn from bark fibres (www.iflscience.com/tiny-40000ye...) and they might have carded animal fur for fibres, but I’m not sure they would have had the volume to make fabrics at a useful scale.

iflscience.com

Tiny 40,000-Year-Old Yarn Made By Neanderthals Is Earliest Evidence Of Fiber Technology

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

If you told me these lyrics were by John Darnielle I wouldn’t doubt you for a second.

A screenshot of the following lyrics from Come In From The Cold by Joni Mitchell:

I am not some stone commission
Like a statue in a park
I am flesh and blood and vision
I am howling in the dark
Long blue shadows of the jackals
Are falling on a pay phone by the road

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

You can’t hear the Mountain Goats cover of Come In From The Cold by Joni Mitchell that’s playing in my head because I’m imagining it, but I invite you to imagine it too because it’s an absolute banger.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It’s genuinely the absolute worst. Sending hugs!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

For what it’s worth, I just finished Even Though I Knew The End and thought it was smart and beautiful. And I think if your strength is in writing, it’s okay to let your books do the talking for you! I don’t think anyone sensible rates writers on how good they are at being the centre of attention.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It feels genuinely sort of luxurious. Just really nice to know you’re not paying for something over and over again, and it’ll be available to you whenever you want for years to come.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I bought a DVD player last year and it’s been AMAZING. I do have an exceptionally good library but I just don’t bother with streaming anymore.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Your place is gorgeous, and the sofa looks right at home!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Reprieve of execution for Mirke! And apologies to Elen for the person they now have to fall in love with.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Experienced two hours of devastation where I thought I had to cut my main POV character to make the story work but then I realised I can just make her more of a bitch and it fixes everything 😊

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

So, have you heard back from your autism assessment yet…? She genuinely couldn’t have a better human looking after her 🥰

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Whenever this sort of thing comes up I go and look at what @/rahaeli (added the slash because I suspect she’s getting constantly pinged about this) and indeed, she’s linked a very clear explanation of how this screenshot misrepresents the law and the judges’ arguments bsky.app/profile/dbee...

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I think you should buy yourself a little treat as a reward 🧁

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

That’s fantastic, well done!!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Hurrah! It looks like a great solution. Enjoy!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I’m impressed! Mine’s not much bigger but I prioritised having a dishwasher over storage space, so I have no drawers and all my cutlery lives in a flowerpot on the counter.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Hurrah! That’s so exciting. I wouldn’t be a functional human being without my dishwasher—I’m you’ve been able to get yours set up!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

She's so polite and concerned not to inconvenience you when she very cautiously cosies up next to you and places one single paw against your leg. And then she demands that hand-feed her every single kibble on her plate one by one.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Aaaa, fantastic! I missed that this was out and I’m excited to read it!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Recorders are a really important instrument in medieval music, too. I met so many people during my MA who played them!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Oh no, that’s so scary! Always get head injuries checked out! I‘m glad you and your wall aren’t too damaged 🫂

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

It sounds like it was such a joyful and communal experience for everyone. My phone was blowing up with messages about people sharing glasses and colanders and pinhole cameras—on top of it being an amazing thing to experience, it seems like it brought out the best in all the humans watching too ☺️

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Yeah, after the one next year it’ll be something like 39 years until there’s another total eclipse in Europe, so it feels worth making the effort while I can. But honestly it was so cool I would definitely travel further to see another one!

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

It was absolutely incredible. There was one in Europe when I was a teenager, but I missed it because we were on holiday, so this was the first time I’d seen one. It was so much more spectacular than I was expecting! There’s another one in Spain next year that I’m going to try to go to…

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I brought my good camera but didn’t want to waste time trying to get a perfect shot and missing the experience in the process. I’m still very fond of my blurry pictures, though.

A blurry picture of the eclipse at totality; the corona is visible, interrupted slightly by a cloud on the right and with some reddish areas on the left.

A photo of the eclipse about a third of the way through; the sun is a crescent over silhouetted buildings. I took this on my phone with a DIY filter made of solar film.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Back from Valencia, where I got to see both the total eclipse and @bennettmckenna.bsky.social! We had a lovely time and the eclipse was absolutely astonishing. I feel so lucky I got to see it, and in such good company too. It was genuinely one of the most awe-inspiring things I’ve ever seen.

A blurry picture of the eclipse at totality; the corona is clearly visible as a glowing circle around the darkness of the moon. There are some buildings in the foreground, and everything is eerily twilit.

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Jess Glanz @jessglanz.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Huh, this is right where I excavated in about 2006 (with Dyfed), and I’m pretty sure West Angle Bay is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Gorgeous place, shame it’s been marred by people who care more about a frankly really annoying character in a story than nature or human rights.

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Reposted by Jess Glanz

Freya Marske @freyamarske.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I am very excited to do a panel on this topic with Natasha, whose books I've loved for years! This should be a great online convention if you're into queer SFF.

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